Friday, November 30, 2012

A Saudi football player could be executed for accidentally killing a Bangladeshi man while driving his car unless he pays diya (blood money).

A court in the northwestern Saudi town of Jouf had given Saud Al Faleh, 20, a few weeks to pay SR300,000 (Dh297,000) diya for the victim’s family but he could not raise all the funds, prompting the court to put him back in jail.

Al Faleh, who plays for Alorouba Youth club, said he had managed to raise around SR120,000 from colleagues, friends and relatives.

In remarks published in Saudi newspapers, the player appealed for Prince Nawaf bin Faisal, president of the Saudi Youth Authority, to help him.

“Al Faleh appealed for Prince Nawaf to help him pay the diya so he can be saved from execution and released from jail,” Aloola newspaper said.

Under Islamic law, which is strictly enforced in conservative Saudi Arabia, a killer can be saved from the gallows and released from jail if pardoned by the victim’s relatives in return for diya, which is set at SR300,000 in the Gulf Kingdom.

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I oppose the death penalty in all cases, unconditionally, regardless of the method chosen to kill the condemned prisoner.
The death penalty is inherently cruel and degrading, a cruel punishment that is incompatible with human dignity.
To end the death penalty is to abandon a destructive diversionary and divisive public policy that is not consistent with widely held values.
The death penalty not only runs the risk of irrevocable error, it is also costly to the public purse as well as in social and psychological terms.
The death penalty has not been proved to have a special deterrent effect.
It tends to be applied in a discriminatory way on grounds of race and class.
It denies the possibility of reconciliation and rehabilitation.
It prolongs the suffering of the murder victim's family and extends that suffering to the loved ones of the condemned prisoner.
It diverts resources that could be better used to work against violent crime and assist those affected by it.
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